Global Warming Side-Effect Of The Day: Changes to the duration of each day
May 23rd, 2008 at 03:25am
Seeing as it’s Friday, I think you deserve two side-effects of global warming today:
1. Longer days:
Belgian scientists have identified a hitherto unsuspected benefit of global warming – more time for all of us.
They say increasing levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere will slow the Earth’s rotation.
This will make every day a little longer than it is already.
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They found that each day would lengthen because of angular momentum changes, including variations in surface pressure over land masses, average surface pressure over the ocean, and zonal winds and currents.
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the effect would be measurable, with a probable increase of 11 microseconds per decade during this century.
The Belgian’s have also expanded on ACTION mathematics to the point where zero is replaced with a random positive number:
“It means 24 hours won’t be 24 hours any more. It will be something a little bit more.”
Of all the possible ways in which climate change could affect our planet, this is the most bizarre: as the oceans warm up, Earth will start rotating a wee bit faster, reducing the length of a day.
The time it takes for Earth to complete one rotation is affected by anything that changes the distribution of the planet’s mass relative to its axis of rotation.
“Think of an ice skater who is spinning,” says Felix Landerer of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany. “When you stretch your arms out you slow down, and when you bring your arms closer to your body you spin faster.” Earth, it seems, will hug itself a little bit tighter because of global warming.
Perhaps, if the Earth hugs itself and becomes more windy, the days won’t change at all.
Samuel
Entry Filed under: Global Warming
